If you've found my blog, you likely already knew my name but may not know anything else about me. I'm a 28-year-old Latter-day Saint from Tremonton, Utah. I'm the seventh of eight kids and have been a member of the Church since age 8. I served in the Brazil, Rio de Janeiro North mission from '06 to '08 and I graduate from BYU in Psychology in August of '15. I experienced exclusive attraction to men from pre-adolescence until shortly after my mission when, through a combination of factors, my sexual orientation became fluid. I now experience varied orientations depending on a number of factors. I've experienced homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual and even asexual orientations for varied periods of time throughout my past several years. For the most part, I don't even bother to identify with a single orientation.
What do I have to say that's worth your time to read? If you've found my blog it's likely because you've already read an article I posted on either Millennial Mormons or Northern Lights. These were my first posts published anywhere outside of facebook and their reception and the feedback I've received have been such that I can no longer pretend that I have nothing worthwhile to share.
So here's my blog. It's small and amateur but I hope that as I share my thoughts on the Restored Gospel and what that has meant in my life as a sexual minority Latter-day Saint, I'll be able to bless others like I was able to with my first post. That's the real reason behind this blog. I hope to be able to touch others' minds and hearts by opening to them a perspective that they perhaps hadn't considered before, or by voicing something they'd wished they could say themselves.
Thank you for your time. I'll do my best to ensure it's always well-spent here.
14 comments:
Once you open the door, the expectation is that light will come pouring through. We need that light to rake across the contours of the Mormon LGBT dilemma in such a way as to encourage understanding. Thanks for writing. Keep it up so that your light illuminates first the door step and then the walk...and then our lives.
Thank you so much for boldly declaring the truth you know. You likely have and will be (more so now) the target of hate-filled people and those who would seek to change the Lord's church. I pray for you, that you will have the Spirit to strengthen you and guide you in your endeavors to enlighten and inform others both in and out of the church.
Um abraço!
Thank you so much! This is a perspective that I haven't known before and I think it is important for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints to remember your perspective on the matter of Same sex marriage.
The only suggestion I would give is that you should take what you wrote on Milleninal Mormons and add it to this blog.
CARRY ON BROTHER! :)
I loved your post on Milleninal Mormons.
Como tu serviu no Rio, vou escrever em portuguese.
Eu só quero dizer que admiro sua coragem.
I don't know you in person, but I have such a love and respect for those who struggle with same gender attraction.
Estarei a acompanhar o blog.
Please, please keep up with the blog.
Obrigada por fazer isso.
Keep the light up!
Thank you for your strength, courage, and mostly of all for your testimony in Christ, his prophets, and the Church. May God give you peace and hope in all you do in the future.
Thank you. You're brave and wise and an example to us all. Bless you!!!
Thank you for your courage! Your faithful diligence is an inspiration to all who have had struggles others may not see or understand. You are doing a good thing and will help and influence many through your courage and faith. Don't let the detractors get you down.
I admire your courage to live as you feel is right. I wish I could give you more encouragement and love, but I chose to leave the LDS Church, even though I am staying in my marriage of 30 years to a woman and even though I am very gay, indeed. I left the LDS church just a little over a year ago, after coming out gay just a year before that. My discouragement centered around the idea you presented in your blog here, that "faith in the prophets and apostles" is an important doctrine of Mormonism. I am 51 years old, and I have seen the prophets and apostles change their ideas about homosexuality, from being very "cultural" in the era of the 1970's and 1980's, defining it mostly like the surround culture did. Today, the new ideas from the prophets and apostles are some realization that they don't know everything about it. I laud the "mormonsandgays dot org" website, which is something that I might have benefitted from greatly during my growing up years. Consequently, this idea of having faith in those apostles and prophets has diminished for me, to the point of no longer having any faith in them. I maintain a belief, albeit very small, in God, but a God that is very different from the Old Testament and parts of the New Testament, too. I hope that in your LDS ward, you find friends and ward members who love and appreciate you for who you are and that you're trying to live God's commandments as you believe them to be; I sincerely do. Thank you for an opportunity to comment in a way that is on another side of the discussion.
Thanks for sharing keep the post coming
Thank you for your courage to speak up and your faithful living of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. You do have the support, sympathy, and admiration of many faithful members who believe in the pure and simple doctrines of the gospel as taught in the scriptures and by our modern day prophets. I look forward to reading more!
Thank you for sharing. While SSA is not my particular struggle in life, I too am a painfully overlooked minority, and I applaud your faithfulness in striving to follow the Savior.
Hi Josh, I found you on AVOW, I think you are amazing! Bev & John Taylor SLC,UT
Joshua, I've been struggling with how to support my LBGT brothers and sisters within the teachings of the gospel. Your article was helpful and I look forward to reading more of your work.
Thanks Joshua for your post. I'm a student at BYU-I and I'm working on a conference to help explain LGBT rights and how the members there can support those who have same-gender attraction while upholding the values of the Church. I would love to talk with you further about this when you have an opportunity. Send me a message on G+ when you can. Thank you!
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